1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographing method, apparatus and non-transitory medium storing a recorded program, in which zooming by an optical zoom and cropping an image by a digital zoom are both controlled to capture a target subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a digital camera can execute various shooting functions using image processing.
Many digital cameras are provided with an optical zoom.
Optical zooming is performed by moving zoom lenses back and forth along an optical axis in accordance with a photographer's manual zoom operation.
Further, digital cameras which can perform digital zooming, by which a portion of an image sensor currently is used to provide cropped image data, are also popular.
Recently, zoom ranges have become larger. Accordingly, even a distant subject can be enlarged and photographed with an adequate size.
Unfortunately, however, the target subject might leave a photographing range when an angle of view is changed from a wide angle to a telephoto angle at a high speed.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-60595 discloses a technology for controlling a zoom position so as to change the angle of view to a wide angle when a target subject leaves the photographing range.
However, according to the above-described technology, zooming is automatically performed to change to the wide angle even though the photographer might want to zoom to the telephoto angle. As a result, the photographer may become confused or disoriented, especially if the automatic change is abrupt.
Example embodiments consistent with the present invention aim to provide a digital camera and a photographing method by which departure of the target subject from the photographing range is prevented, while avoiding confusing or disorienting the photographer.